The Price of a Wagon Road: Financing the Frontier
A look at the logistical grunt work of early King County, from building roads to settling school district boundaries in 1878.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The petition of Julius Lungs and others for the establishment of a road south of W. 936, north of that line and running to intersect the Seattle and Snoqualmie road in section 9 of the same township, was granted by the Board, and Julius Inge, I. V. Hibbard and N. Edmonds were appointed viewers, and F.H. Whitworth surveyor, to meet on the 3d day of June 1878. Jerry W. Borst having paid into the county treasury the sum of $247.25 in U. S. gold coin, the same being money received for the Snoqualmie wagon road, the Board appointed W. H. Crockett to superintend the appropriation of said money as required by law, and empowered said Crockett to give orders on the treasurer of King County in a sum or sums not exceeding said $247.25 for labor actually performed on said road under his instructions. The Board authorized the auditor to officially notify the treasurer to pay out on the order or orders of said W. H. Crockett any sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of $247.25 for labor performed on the road from Snoqualmie prairie to Lake Kichelas under the instructions of said Crockett. The Board also accepted the abstract made by A. Mackintosh and authorized the auditor to issue a warrant on the treasurer in favor of said Mackintosh in the sum of four hundred dollars, the price agreed upon by the Board for said abstract.
“Jerry W. Borst having paid into the county treasury the sum of $247 and 25-100 in U. S. gold coin... the Board appointed W. H. Crockett to superintend the appropriation of said money.”
In 1878, Seattle’s civic leaders were preoccupied with the literal carving of infrastructure out of the wilderness using gold coin and local labor. Today, while the currency is different, the friction between territorial expansion, the development of rural connectors, and the endless administrative minutiae of the Board of Commissioners remains a cornerstone of King County governance.
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